The Sound
by GEFM 420
Summary: Spoilers for Labyrinth. Rated K. Clark returns from the AU dimension described in Labyrinth. He copes with the death of a friend. CHLARK.


Title: The Sound

Author: GEFM

Genre: Romance

Fandom: Smallville

Pairing: Clark/Chloe

Disclaimer: Spoilers for Labyrinth; I don't own. All characters are property of the CW network and DC comics.

ENJOY!!!

The mysterious man he'd met inside the asylum had somehow vanished then and he found himself overcome with nausea. The sensation felt vaguely like his reaction to kryptonite but far more dire and severe. His chest filled with fire and confusion.

Unable to support himself any longer, he stumbled over to a crate and fell upon it, breaking it in many hopeless pieces. He sat on the floor in the wake of the remnants and splinters that were now sprinkled about the floor.

She just died. Chloe actually died.

He saw it. He couldn't stop it.

He looked around the peculiar space, realizing for the first time his change of venue.

How was he transported to the barn?

Where was Chloe?

He immediately thought of going to the Talon. He needed to go to her now. She didn't deserve to be left that way all alone. Maybe he could still save her somehow.

He stood up trying desperately to retain his balance. Just as he took his first step to depart he caught sight of his hands. They had returned to their natural color. They no longer appeared to have a pale sickly complexion. He sensed the apparent difference in himself. The powers he had been so accustomed to had returned, surging happily in his body again.

He was wearing his regular outfit too. Everything was normal with him again…or at least what was his normality.

And then he remembered. He had come here in pursuit of that man. He was here when his world turned upside down.

Had he been here all along?

None of that- it wasn't real? But it felt so…

He remembered it all distinctly.

He held her as she took her last breaths, as she shook tremulously. He heard her worn heart beat fade and he saw her face contort in an unmistakable agony.

Nothing had ever been so real to him, of that he was sure.

There was no way…He knew it.

"When your mom told me you were held up in the barn all day, I was afraid you had a Lana relapse."

He turned quickly, so quickly his frame to blurred with the speed. His eyes fell upon her hungrily, taking in the beautiful image he saw before him. Her eyes shone with playful vitality and her swagger of something he recognized whenever she was relaxed…a manner of freedom.

It occurred to him that she was a manifestation of some sort. Otherwise he would have heard her approach. For some reason, he could always hear her unconsciously. He used to, anyway.

Maybe she was a ghost, come to forgive him for his transgressions and faults. Or maybe it was what he expected…his imagination giving him comfort.

"Chloe." His softly spoken words sounded foreign to him, as if he was expecting to never utter her name again.

"Your mom worries about you too much, you know. I'm always telling her you're not as miserable as you seem. I mean, sometimes you even smile." She beamed brightly as she moved closer, but it had no affect on his mood. Figments of ones conscious don't have the same power as the real thing.

"What-what are you talking about?" he asked confused by her ease, and the way she was avoiding the topic.

She looked at him oddly for a moment, unsure how to respond. He assumed she was offended by his directness.

"I came to see how you were doing. Are you okay?" He considered her, trying to understand why she didn't seem as angry as she ought to be. In fact, she didn't look angry at all.

"How can you come back here and pretend like nothing happened? As if I didn't just let you down." He turned away from her, no longer able to face her cheerful disposition. Who cares if he was being a little forward? She was being equally ridiculous.

"Okay, now I'm officially confused. What are _you_ talking about?" her arms folded tightly over her chest.

He noticed the sound of her arms rubbing together. The _sound…_

His heart pounded heavily in his ears and for a moment he couldn't hear anything else. But in the background he could hear it, hear her.

The miraculous sound of her breath as it escaped her, the magnificent sound of her heart beating without apparent end, and the marvelous sound of her foot tapping in her impatience.

The sound of her alive.

He moved toward her but stopped before he had gotten in arms reach. Clark looked her over again. He had been so caught up in himself that he missed it. He had been so irrational he had been blind to her.

It was true. She was alive.

He stepped cautiously again until he found himself hovering over her admiringly.

Surprisingly, Chloe did not say a word, her usual volubility momentarily conquered by her curiosity. She sometimes found it better to listen than talk; though it was a rare occurrence.

Clark unraveled her arms slowly until each of her hands lay palm up in his. His eyes remained transfixed on her face, entranced with her existence, with the great fortune of standing next to her again.

No longer able to stay still she impulsively wrapped her petite arms around his Goliath sized shoulders sensing that he needed this gravely. For what reason she was completely ignorant, but somehow she knew. After seven years, she knew how to attend to his moods.

He did not react at first, keeping his arms obediently at his sides. Chloe felt as if she was hugging a stone wall for the amount of emotion this provoked in him.

But then, seemingly without warning, he crashed into her. His arms closed over her back desperately and clung to the material of her jacket. He felt like a drowning man, holding on dearly to his lifesaver. His face fell to her shoulder as he allowed the weight he carried perpetually to be eased off of him.

He let her save him just as she once begged him to allow so many months before.

He let her in.

She pulled back a bit and Clark lessened his grip in turn.

Without knowing what was happening or what possessed him at this moment he kissed her softly then deeply, imparting the secret he guarded from her over the past 6 months.

She had a boyfriend, but that didn't matter to him anymore.

She'd died without knowing how he felt about her, without feeling how he felt about her.

He couldn't live with himself if he didn't let her know now, regardless of its consequence.

And when they broke apart breathlessly, she knew whether she would admit it or not.

"Clark, I have…Jimmy." She reminded him not with conviction but out of moral necessity.

He looked down at her wordlessly and backed away from her. He pretended that he accepted this truth without contest. But he was completely unharmed by her comment. He remembered something Lex had said to him once; "A boyfriend is merely an obstacle."

She had kissed him back.

Shelby, the family dog, came teetering in to save the moment and went instinctively straight to Chloe. Usually she'd coo at him as she rubbed his ears but she held their vow, not daring to make any sound at all.

Clark joined in with Chloe who has now crouched down next to the dog, rubbing the dog's belly as he rolled on his back. Neither looked at each other as they continued this way. Chloe's initial curiosity was now gnawing at her to find out what was going on with Clark. Luckily, Clark sensed this agitation in her, marked mostly by the rough way she began scratching Shelby's head.

"You might not believe this." He finally said after many moments of an awkward silence. "But I had the weirdest day."

She looked up at him from where she sat and smiled, knowing he would soon tell her the story that she now desperately wanted to hear.

"I believe you." She answered unconsciously, like an impulse she couldn't control.

And he knew that she did.

She always would.

_**FINIS**_


End file.
